In control plane enabled optical networks, control plane connections are mesh restored when network facilities (e.g., ports) within the network fail. This restoration process is dependent on the availability of a mesh restoration route that meets the connection's service and routing constraints. However, the control plane does not react to failures that occur on the connection's client facilities, i.e. facilities (e.g., ports) leading to the client device at both ends of the connection. During such failures, the connection through the optical network remains, but no traffic can be successfully exchanged between the client devices at the two ends of the connection. In other words, network resources remain occupied despite the failure and are unavailable to other connections which may need these resources, for example, to mesh restore when they experience failures within the network.